The Party

Good afternoon on the start of a new year and a new decade, welcome to you all, and to my new followers, its very nice to know you are out there!  I hope you have all had a great time over the festive period and looking forward to new beginnings.

Arranging a surprise party proved more involved than I anticipated - but I was sooo pleased with the outcome. 

My planning began back in October when I decided a surprise 80th party for my Mum would be a good idea, I wanted it to be like a Tea Party, I was determined to make a rich fruit cake and decorate it as Mum had made and iced our wedding cake 29 years ago.  As you may recall, it didn't all go smoothly, the first roses I made flopped, but I carried on practising.  I sought advice from a cake shop lady and practiced trellis work.  It took three attempts to get the royal icing smooth on top - but I got there

would you like to see the result?

Ta dah!

I was so relieved, the night before I iced it I hardly slept and had to get up at the crack of dawn to start because I just WANTED IT DONE!

The little white rose on the board was made by my daughter and we didn't want to leave it out.

I enjoyed Christmas, but was a little side tracked thinking about the last minute preparations and worrying about the weather, no good having a party if the guests can't get there!  In fact, my Aunt and Uncle who were coming from France couldn't come in the end because of the weather and travel disruptions, but they rang instead, which was lovely

On the day, my lovely daughter and sister-in-law were in charge of the sandwiches and a fine job they did too, and I made the floral decorations

a clever lady arrived to make a balloon arch

there was just time to dress up before the guests started arriving and then we had to wait for my brother to arrive with Mum, they were travelling down the M25 which was really slow and my nephew kept texting my son saying how far away they were, it was really exciting

When they pulled up on the drive all the guests kept quiet in the lounge and Mum came into the hall chatting about her christmas with my brother and his family, with no idea at all of what was about to happen.  She took off her coat and I took her hand and said lets go into the lounge opened the door and everyone shouted Happy Birthday!

she was so shocked I thought for a minute she might keel over!! 

it was a great moment

we had a lovely time catching up with relatives we hadn't seen for ages and friends and close family and the time flew by

I felt so happy at the end of it all and a little emotional, the weeks of planning paid off and it felt really good, to have pulled off such a great surprise!

Mum still is floating on air and can't believe all those people turned up for her.. she says thats it, now she is 80 she is handing over cake making to me because she was so impressed with my effort!

The balloon arch is still surviving to remind us of the day!

It was a nice way to end 2009. 

Happy New Year to you all!

Speak soon xx